Disturbing Drawings of a Cute Little Girl
by Acidwing
Summary: Transcendence AU. An art teacher finds Acacia's sketchbook and is very disturbed by her drawings
1. Chapter 1

_A/N: Based on this post_ **hirilelfwraith. tumblr. ****com / post/ 99460324625**

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><p>Any other teacher would have been angry to see one of their pupils drawing in a sketchbook instead of working in class. Emma Sanders was only happy. This was an art class after all, and not only had little Acacia Pines already finished her given task, she really had talent. Why should Emma stop her? It would be as stupid as a math teacher trying to stop children from solving equations.<p>

As the bell rang and the classroom filled with noise, Ms. Sanders smiled and waved goodbye to the kids. The teacher glanced at her schedule where the next hour was free, and then slumped tiredly into her chair. She loved working with children, but it could be quite exhausting. Letting her mind drift she shifted her gaze around the classroom before catching the sight of an object lying on the floor. The woman blinked and stood up ignoring the protest of her feet as she recognized the sketchbook. Acacia must have lost it in the commotion. Ms. Sanders shook her head and picked up the book dusting it off. Poor girl would certainly miss it. The art teacher furrowed her brow trying to remember where Acacia's next class was but kept drawing a blank. Ah, no matter. She'll find it.

Holding the sketchbook in one hand Emma stepped to the door but paused. She probably _shouldn't_, but she was curious. Acacia rarely showed her drawings, and the teacher couldn't help but wonder what was in the book. The girl was just so talented! Besides who could it hurt to have a sneak peek? And no one needed to know about it.

Feeling slightly guilty, Ms. Sanders sat at her table, and opened the sketchbook.

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><p>The drawings were amazing for a ten-year-old. Emma studied the sketch of a forest creek and a deer drinking from it. Another page was filled with flowers and butterflies. On the next was a jagged mountain in the middle of the forest, then a crooked building with "Mystery Shack" written on it. An old man standing in the boat and proudly holding up a fish. A man and a woman hugging each other that Emma recognized as Mr. and Mrs. Pines. Three kids – Acacia and her siblings – around a birthday cake…<p>

Ms. Sanders smiled understandably proud of her best pupil. Clearly she could be a great artist one day! She thumbed through more pages – several crystals with multicolored lights coming from them, a gnome hiding under the mushroom, some strange cross between unicorn and leprechaun (she honestly had no idea if that thing was even real).

As the art teacher turned more pages, she could see the drawings improving, becoming more detailed, but worryingly darker at the same time. There was a picture of several disembodied hands, mermaid skeleton, a jar of what looked like eyes, some monstrous creatures she couldn't even name…

Ms. Sanders paused and shook her head. Some kids liked creepy things. Emma herself liked drawing monsters as a child. Of course, the things in the sketchbook could very well be real, and not just imagination, but there were so many ways Acacia could have found out about them – TV and Internet came to mind first.

Her uncertain worries thus allayed, Emma resumed her study of the book, but the next drawing caused her concern to skyrocket.

A dark figure with disturbingly sharp teeth and yellow eyes was depicted there. The figure was floating over the summoning circle, and Emma didn't need to be a genius to recognize a demon. With a shudder she turned the page – and dropped the sketchbook in shock.

The same grinning demonic figure was there, but now it was shaking Acacia's hand engulfed in blue fire. Worse still, there were two other figures she had no trouble recognizing as Willow and Henry, who were splattered with red. The teacher could only stare at the picture in horror. Was it really what little Acacia was dreaming about? Making a deal with the demon, murdering her siblings?! How could such sweet little girl wish for something so horrible? Hastily she turned the page, not noticing the empty jar with the picture of strawberry and the word "Jam" scribbled on it.

The next drawing was hardly better – that same demonic entity was holding little Henry by his shirt while Willow tried desperately to run away.

Another drawing – the woman she recognized as Mabel Pines, only with yellow eyes and too many sharp teeth shown in a disturbing grin, her shadow belonging to that same winged demon.

The last picture – a half-finished sketch of the shadow demon (again!) – and the teacher snapped the book closed, wishing she never gave in to her curiosity.

Breathing heavily she took the sketchbook in her shaking hands and hid it into the drawer, locking it. Her mind raced trying in vain to understand what caused such horrible fantasies. She had to inform the parents and hope they could help little Acacia.

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><p>"Where is it, where is it, <em>where is it<em>?!" Acacia Pines frantically ruffled through her backpack. Not finding the sketchbook she dropped to her hands and knees looking under the desks and chairs. "Where is it?!"

"What happened?" Henry asked as his sister crawled on the floor.

"Did you lose something?" Willow piped up joining the search.

"My- OUCH! Ow, ow, ow!" her eyes filling with tears, Acacia pressed a hand to her head and glared angrily at the edge of the desk. Why did it have to be so hard? Stupid desk. "My sketchbook. It was _there_, and now it isn't!"

"I'm sorry to hear it," the teacher said crouching nearby and looking under the desk too. "But I don't see anything. When did you see the book the last time?"

"The art class," the girl realized and clambered up. "Thanks, Mr. Robinson! C'mon, guys!"

The teacher barely had the time to get out the way as the trio bolted out the classroom.

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><p>"Ms. Sanders! Ms. Sanders!" Emma flinched at the loud voice calling her name and turned to the redheaded trio barreling through the door.<p>

"Hello again," she said trying to pretend nothing was wrong.

"Ms. Sanders! I lost my sketchbook!"

The teacher cringed slightly but kept her voice level, "I'm sorry, but I haven't seen it. You can look around if you want."

The children had immediately scattered around the classroom as Emma tried to squash her guilt. She hated lying, but the book was the evidence. She couldn't give it away, not now.

"It's not here," Acacia said in a small voice looking crestfallen. "But where?!"

"Maybe someone's already found it," Hank suggested.

"Let's call uncle Dipper!" Willow yelled. "He'll help!"

Acacia brightened immediately. "You're right! Let's go! Bye, Ms. Sanders!"

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><p>Huddled together behind the school building, the Pines triplets pooled their resources – a pack of M&amp;M's, a chocolate bar, and a half-eaten pack of cookies. Acacia tore out a page from her notebook quickly sketching a summoning circle. Hank pricked his thumb with a pin smearing a drop of blood on the page while Willow chanted the spell.<p>

Shadows poured out of thin air but cleared quickly revealing the demonic figure floating above the circle.

"Uncle Dipper! Help!" Acacia begged. "I lost my sketchbook!"

Dipper reached to ruffle her hair reassuringly, "Don't worry, little one. We'll find it."

Smiling already because her uncle could do anything, Acacia showed him the sweets, "Is it enough? We can get more!"

"Nah, it's alright. I'll say it's enough to get you back home too."

Shaking his hand covered in blue fire, Acacia cheerfully said, "Deal!"

Dipper snapped his fingers teleporting the sketchbook right into her hands, shoved the snacks into his pockets and transported the kids and himself back home.

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><p>Emma slowly slid down the wall, watching the sheet of paper with the summoning circle drawn on it catch on fire and burn to ashes in seconds. A few minutes later she shakily stood up approaching the place where she had just witnessed her pupils make a deal with the demon but nothing was left there to remind of the deed. Like a dream. An awful, awful dream.<p>

Twitching slightly, Emma turned around heading home. She would call in sick tomorrow. After that – a parent-teacher conference. Immediately.


	2. Chapter 2

_A/N: Inspired by this post (particularly the ending)_ **transcendence-au. tumblr. ****com / post/ 99877258773**

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><p>Emma had never missed work without a good reason, so her stuttering and admittedly shell-shocked voice was proof enough that she needed a day off. Now she simply tried to keep herself occupied and away from all the thoughts about demons and whatnot.<p>

…She was losing her mind. The memory from the day before kept replaying before her mind's eye on an infinite loop as dozens of questions appeared taunting her with their lack of answers.

Parent-teacher conference. Right. She just had to inform Mr. and Mrs. Pines, that's all. Meet them tomorrow… oh, wait. Today was Friday, wasn't it? That meant she had two more days of endless questions with nothing but her imagination to answer them and conjure scenarios each worse than the other.

Letting out a weak giggle, Emma curled into a ball of misery on her couch, violently shaking her head. No. No way. There was no way she could survive this weekend without getting some answers. She was going to completely lose it otherwise.

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><p>"…No idea why you want those records, but here they are. You owe me so much now for going into the nest of Ms. Critters- I mean, Bitters- yeesh, talk about appropriate names, right? That creepy hag from the archive- I swear, she totally is a real hag, like potions and curses hag. Who let her work at <em>school<em> of all places? Shouldn't she be a- a- a _tax accountant_ or something? No, wait, then she'll be even scarier. Oh, and I looked in your desk, and nope, no books, or sketchbooks, or sketches, or anything, why is your desk so empty? Where do you keep all your stuff?"

Years of practice let Emma filter out her friend's incessant chatter gleaning the necessary information from it. "Thanks, Sarah," she said taking the photocopies of the school records.

"Any time!" her talkative guest grinned. "By the way, you still look terrible, so you should get some rest or something... I better go and stop bugging you. Bye!"

Waving her goodbye, Emma closed the door of her apartment, and dug into the papers.

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><p>The next day Emma Sanders was buzzing from anxiety, exhaustion, and too much caffeine. For the umpteenth time she glanced at the Pines family address stated in the records then looked at the completely unassuming house. The teacher took a deep breath steeling herself and approached the building.<p>

Her finger hovering near the doorbell, she felt her heart trying to burst out her chest. Exhaling sharply she rang the bell. Emma waited anxiously wringing her hands. And waited. And waited… Was there anybody home? She rang the doorbell again then knocked on the door.

"Coming!" a female voice yelled, and the door opened to reveal frazzled-looking Mabel Pines. "Can I help you?" she asked then twitched as the maniacal laughter and loud yells were heard from inside the house.

"Hello, Mrs. Pines. I'm Emma Sanders, an art teacher-"

Mabel grinned at her, "Really? Acacia is always talking about you! You're her favorite teacher. Come in!"

With a deep breath Emma stepped inside the house but flinched as the male voice yelled, "You're dead! I'll kill you, you hear that?!" followed by more laughter.

"Ignore them," Mabel said leading her into the living room and gesturing to the couch. "Do you want some tea? Coffee?"

Emma carefully sat on the couch folding her hands on her lap. "No, thank you, Mrs. Pines."

Shrugging slightly the other woman dropped into the armchair, "Okay." Hearing more noises she yelled, "Knock it off, you two!" then sighed, "Sometimes I want to strangle them both… Anyway, Ms. Sanders, you are here because…?"

"This concerns Acacia," Emma started.

Tilting her head to the side Mabel asked, "What about her?"

…How in the world do you explain to someone that their children had not only summoned a demon but made a deal with it as well? Her prepared speech already forgotten, Emma unconsciously began twisting her clasped hands. Deciding to start at the beginning, she opened her mouth to speak, but any word she might have said fled right out of her head, as the bright and cheery room was suddenly swarmed with shadows.

Distorted laughter echoed loudly and Emma turned, terrified, to see a figure of pure darkness fly into the room. His hands were wreathed in blue flames, wings arching from his back, mouth opened widely in a grin full of shark-like teeth, yellow eyes glowing like twin stars… In some part of her terror-frozen mind Emma recognized the demonic being as the same one the children summoned, the same one depicted in the sketchbook.

Still cackling madly the demon floated forward then ducked sharply.

"You can't run forever!" the man in a flannel shirt shouted swiping at the demon with a broom once again. "I'll get you! Stay still and let me kill you!"

Weaving through the air the demon evaded each blow and laughed, "But Henry~ Didn't the kids like my present? They were so happy~"

This served to rile the man up even more. Swinging the broom wildly he yelled, "You're dead!" then lunged forward grabbing the demon by the wing. With a startled yelp the supernatural being fell from the air, and the man pinned him to the floor, "I'll wring your scrawny neck!"

"Dogpile!" a cheerful voice rang out, and three small redheaded children ran into the room jumping on top of the still laughing demon.

Mabel rubbed her eyes with a tired smile, "Please, ignore the children... All five of them. You were saying…? Ms. Sanders…?"

With a sigh she stood up and rearranged the unconscious woman until she was lying more comfortably on the couch. "This is going to be fun to explain."

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><p><em>AN: Henry is so chill all the time, I loved the idea of him losing his cool~_

_The name "Ms. Bitters" is from "Invader Zim". If you watched that show, you know how creepy she is. *shudders*_

_Also the stuff about the records is one big handwave._


End file.
